James McAvoy has joked that he plans to "bury" Patrick Stewart's performance as Professor X in X-Men: First Class.

The actor - who portrays the character in the upcoming sequel to the Marvel series - told MTV News that he is looking forward to helping create the origins of such an iconic role.

"I'm basically going to try and bury Patrick's performance," he said.

"I think the fun about these films, when you go back and you either reboot or do a prequel, is you get to see how people became who they are. That means that you have to do them differently and by the end of the movie you have to do them the same way."

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He added: "The interesting journey is what happens to them, what changes them, what makes them evolve - not just mutate, but emotionally and psychologically evolve."